But regardless of the real meaning of Clinton’s words, and of Clinton’s long relationship with African-Americans, this is the rift between the Clinton and Obama camps that still cuts the deepest, and the one that may have the severest consequences for Obama’s White House bid. When John McCain’s campaign manager last week accused Obama of playing the “race card,” the Clintons or their supporters could have provided a powerful rebuttal. Instead they were silent, and in private, some even quietly cheered.

The depth of the anger in Clinton’s circle became clear Friday, when McCain’s chief strategist compared his candidate to Bill Clinton, and the Clintons seemed to accept the analogy.

"Say whatever you want about Bill Clinton, but it's deeply unfair to suggest his criticism of Obama was race-based,” McCain adviser Steve Schmidt told Politico, after his campaign blasted Obama for suggesting the McCain campaign would use his race against him. “We knew it was coming in our direction because they did it against a president of the United States of their own party.”

Hillary Clinton’s staff declined to comment, but her campaign communications director, Howard Wolfson, appeared on Fox News later that day to, in effect, back Schmidt up.

Some have stated that the Obama campaign shouldn't be criticized for bringing up race. However, it's important to note that the Obama campaign didn't just make a blanket statement about race and ethnicity, Obama directly stated that the McCain campaign would be using his "funny name" and the way he looks against him. What is unfair is to point your finger at the McCain campaign for trying to scare people with race and ethnicity when there is no evidence of that happenning.

The Clinton camp's silence speaks volumes. If they disagreed with the McCain campaign's assessment they could have easily knocked down the 'race card' charges, or at least minimized them with a simple statement. That didn't happen, and the reason is that they've already been burned by this strategy.